* Baylor men’s tennis upset No. 9 Mississippi State on their own turf to advance to the Sweet 16 for the 11th year in a row. Head coach Matt Knoll’s Bears, ranked 25th nationally, will face No. 8 Duke in the Elite Eight on Friday at the NCAA Championships in Athens, Ga.

* Holding serve, Baylor women’s tennis matched the men by taking care of business at home and sweeping the first and second rounds in Waco. Head coach Joey Scrivano’s Lady Bears, ranked 13th nationally, are into the Round of 16 for the eighth straight year and will next face No. 5 USC on Thursday in Athens.

* Baylor softball, meanwhile, will begin its run at back-to-back College World Series this weekend in Lafayette, La. Despite losing All-American ace pitcher Whitney Canion to a season-ending knee injury nearly three months ago, head coach Glenn Moore’s Lady Bears have held onto their top-25 ranking and enter the NCAA tournament ranked 23rd.

* First-year head coach Jay Goble has the Baylor women’s golf team headed to the NCAA Championships for just the second time in school history after finishing fifth at the NCAA West Regional last week. Baylor men’s golf, led by head coach Greg Priest, are headed to Ann Arbor, Mich., for their 15th straight postseason appearance later this week.

The Year of the Bear just keeps rolling on!

Sic ’em, Bears!

Pro Futuris builds on the foundation laid by the successful Vision 2012 launched a decade ago (this video does a great job of summing up the last 10 years of progress), but differs from the previous plan in that specific projects are not detailed; instead, Pro Futuris focuses on five guiding ideas — dubbed “aspirational statements” — from which more concrete plans will develop in the coming months and years.

[LINKS: Pro Futuris website | Introductory letter from President Starr | The foundation of the vision | How Baylor arrived at the final vision | Pro Futuris overview and aspirational statements]

At its core, Pro Futuris calls for Baylor to continue to grow as a community recognized for transformational education, compelling scholarship, informed engagement, committed constituents and judicious stewardship. The plan expounds on each of those aspirations in more detail, in particular noting how faith weaves its way through every area of the university.

I encourage you to peruse the links above on the Pro Futuris website to learn more about the vision, particularly about each of the aspirational statements and the process by which the vision was developed. As specific initiatives based on the vision are put into place both in the short and long term, we’ll continue to share the news along the way.

Sic ’em, Baylor!

It was a busy four years, wasn’t it? Let’s take a stroll back down memory lane; click the links for past posts (and in many cases, photo galleries)…

You arrived four (or maybe five) years ago… We introduced a few of you back in the spring and summer of 2008: National Merit finalists, aspiring doctors, Gates Millennium Scholars, Eagle Scouts, and plenty of valedictorians. You attended Line Camp, then joined the Baylor Line, and Freshman Follies broke any ice that remained.

During your time here, you welcomed a new president, helped Baylor to its highest U.S.News rankings ever, and got to help guide the direction Baylor will take for the next 10 years as the new strategic plan was shaped.

Technology progressed, and you followed along as Baylor launched Twitter accounts and an official Facebook page. That helped you know of visits from all the prominent guests who sat foot on campus, from George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice and Sandra Day O’Connor to David Crowder, Max Lucado and ESPN’s College Gameday basketball crew.

Four years on campus means four Diadelosos (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012), four Sing performances (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012) and four Homecomings (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011). [Mark your calendar now to return for Homecoming 2012, Nov. 2-3.] You even enjoyed a couple of snow days.

You celebrated national titles in track, women’s basketball and equestrian, Baylor’s first bowl game and first bowl victory in years, and two men’s basketball Elite Eight runs. You cheered on Robert Griffin III to that unbelievably believable Heisman win and saw Bears taken in the first round of the NFL, NBA and MLB drafts.

In between all that, you found time to serve, serve, and serve some more. You helped out after Hurricane Ike, went on mission trips, started Campus Kitchen, built homes for Habitat, and went out on two Steppin’ Outs a year.

As you graduate, you join the 150,000 living alumni who, while you’ve been in college, have been winning awards (from the Olympics to the Grammys) and leading the way across all fields — from government to real estate, ministry to medicine, sports to education, technology to travel, health care to law. They’ve also been giving to support you and Baylor, from scholarships to stadiums.

What a ride! Graduates, we look forward to continuing to tell your story here on Baylor Proud — we’ll just check the “alumni” category instead of “student life” next time.

Sic ’em, Class of 2012!

Of the 54 Baylor students who took the three-day exam for the first time in February, 50 passed, a 92.59% success rate. Only one other school (SMU) even topped 90%; third-place was Texas Tech at barely more than 80%. The overall state pass rate was just 77%.

The exam is given twice a year, so this was the 22nd offering since July 2001. Baylor law has led the state in first-time pass rate a whopping 15 times. No other school has led more than three times over that span.

Baylor students also demonstrated their abilities relative to students from other schools in claiming both first and second place at the National Trial Competition, beating out approximately 300 teams from all over the country in the nation’s largest and oldest mock trial competition. In the final round, Mark Walraven and Steven Lopez defeated Joel Towner and Chaille Graft Walraven; the quartet is pictured above.

Sic ’em, Baylor law!

“Alma mater” means “dear mother,” and given the way Baylor alumni interacts with the university and one another, it seems especially fitting here. There’s a reason we refer to ourselves as “the Baylor family.”

And like any mother, the university does its best to keep the family connected. As part of Vision 2012, Baylor leaders a decade ago placed an increased emphasis on “enhancing involvement of the entire Baylor family,” and that desire is repeated in Aspirational Statement Four of the draft strategic plan.

Thanks to the increased efforts of the last decade that continue today, the Class of 2012 graduates who walk the Ferrell Center stage this weekend will immediately have far more ways to stay in touch with Baylor than previous generations.

The Class of 2012 — and all alumni, as long as Baylor has updated contact information — will of course still receive traditional printed pieces in the mail. Baylor Magazine goes out to approximately 120,000 addresses every three months, carrying university and alumni news, and President Ken Starr sends his letters to the Baylor family throughout the year.

The Baylor Alumni Network takes Baylor on the road, holding regular gatherings and special events like watch parties and send-off gatherings across Texas, all over the country and even internationally.

And online, sites like baylor.edu/alumni, baylorbears.com, and (naturally) Baylor Proud join Facebook and Twitter in keeping alumni informed on happenings around campus and among the Baylor family.

To the Class of 2012: As you head out, keep in touch with your old alma mater. Come back every once in awhile — Homecoming is just six months away! — and drop us a line every now and then to keep us and your classmates up to speed on how life is treating you.

Sic ’em, Baylor family!

That’s what senior Drew Shows figured, so he took the occasion of the annual senior trip to Independence, organized by the Baylor Alumni Network, to pop the question to his girlfriend, senior Elisabeth Erickson. Drew got down on one knee in front of not just 120 fellow Class of 2012 seniors, but also a dozen or so family members who showed up to cheer the couple on (complete with a “Please Say Yes” sign held by Elisabeth’s brother). [Click here for more photos.]

Having started her Baylor career at Line Camp, “it was really cool to be completing full circle starting there and ending there!” says Elisabeth. “Drew wanted a place that was significant to Baylor, since that is where we met and fell in love, and what better place than the original site of the school?”

The future Mr. and Mrs. Shows will each graduate this weekend, Drew with a degree in risk management and insurance and Elisabeth with a degree in nursing. After graduation, they are moving to Fort Worth (where Elisabeth will continue her BU connections, working as a NICU nurse at Baylor All Saints Medical Center). The wedding is slated for next spring.

Sic ’em, Drew and Elisabeth!

Previously on Baylor Proud:
* Baylor guys find creative ways to propose to their Baylor girls (Sept. 2011)
* Foreign language leads to love for Baylor couple (Nov. 2009)
* Baylor campus wedding locations abound (March 2009)
* Oprah features a true Baylor love story (Nov. 2007)

Jennifer Sampson, BBA ’92, had served the organization for 10 years, first as its CFO and then as executive vice president and COO, when she was named president and CEO last September. The former Baylor Homecoming Queen now heads North Texas’ largest non-governmental funder of programs supporting education, income and health, overseeing a $45 million annual budget and more than 5,000 volunteers.

“As a student at Baylor, I was introduced to the fundamentals of corporate philanthropy and social responsibility,” Sampson told the Baylor Business Review in 2009. “It’s very rewarding to work for a mission-based organization. Our mission is to improve lives. It’s about advancing the common good and creating better opportunities for everyone. Through partnerships and collaborations, we hope to mobilize resources to create sustainable change.”

You can get to know the Kappa Kappa Gamma alum a little better from this Q&A with the Dallas Business Journal and this story about the “mom next door” from Dallas Child.

Sic ’em, Jennifer!

Baylor baseball can now say the same thing. Ranked No. 1 by Collegiate Baseball the past two weeks (the first time in program history) and having recorded the nation’s longest winning streak of 2012, head coach Steve Smith’s squad claimed the 2012 Big 12 title on Saturday when Texas lost to Missouri.

The Bears’ program-record 24-game winning streak earlier this season propelled them to both a hefty lead in the conference standings — with two weeks left to go, Baylor’s Big 12 lead is now at 6.5 games over the Aggies, Cowboys and Longhorns, who are all tied for second-place — and to the top of the rankings. On March 19, the Bears were not among the top 25 in any major poll; today, they are No. 1 or 2 in all five major rankings.

Baseball is one of 11 BU varsity programs currently in the top 25, along with women’s basketball (1), equestrian (3), acrobatics & tumbling (5), men’s basketball (8), football (12), women’s tennis (12), women’s indoor track & field (16), women’s golf (17), women’s outdoor track & field (22), and softball (25). And even that doesn’t include Baylor soccer, which finished 15th in the RPI but unranked by the voters; men’s tennis, which has finished in the top 10 each of the last 10 seasons but currently sits at No. 28; and men’s golf, which sits just outside the top 25 at No. 29.

The Bears have two home games remaining: May 15 against UTSA, and May 17 against Texas. The first 4,000 fans into Baylor Ballpark for the game against Texas will receive the shirt pictured above.

Diadeloso? More like Añodeloso (Year of the Bear).

Sic ’em, Bears!

Today, the pair share something else: success. Simmons is the lead singer of a Dove Award-nominated band, Addison Road, while Davis is a Tony Award-nominee for best actress in a musical thanks to her role in Broadway’s Once.

About a month ago — even before news of Davis’ nomination came out — Simmons wrote a moving post on her blog about her joy at seeing her Baylor friend’s dreams coming true. You really need to read the whole piece; it makes some very poignant points about how one relates to another person chasing his/her dreams. Consider this a teaser:

“But mom, all I want to do is a catch a bird.”

I wonder sometimes what I will tell the Emergency Room staff when I check her in with duck-bite-wounds. I imagine them saying something like, “Well, how did she get close enough to a duck to get bitten? Why in the world was she holding a bird in her hands? Where were the adults?”

And I will have to say, “I was there. I was there praying to God that He would please, for the love of all that’s holy, just let the kid catch a bird. It’s all she wants to do in this life.” And the nurse will shake her head in displeasure.
…

“Why are you smile-crying Mom?”

Go read the whole thing here, and then check out Davis and others from the musical’s cast performing on Late Night with David Letterman.

Sic ’em, Jenny and Elizabeth, Once, and Baylor friends everywhere!

[Do you have a story like this that resonates about Baylor friendship? Or perhaps you know of an inspiring story, news item, or just a fun link that makes you proud of Baylor and the Baylor family. Either way, let us know; click here to submit your point of pride!]

Rather than spin a lengthy narrative about Baylor’s athletic success in 2011-12, let’s just go straight to the facts:

• 80 combined wins across the “big three” sports (football, men’s and women’s basketball), the most of any school in NCAA history.
• 118 combined wins (and counting) across the “big four” (FB, MBB, WBB and baseball), rapidly approaching the record of 123 set by Texas in 2003-04.
• Only the second school ever to win the Heisman Trophy and earn consensus national player of the year honors in basketball in one year.
• 14 of Baylor’s 19 varsity programs have already reached the postseason this year — matching the school record for the fourth straight year — and the other five are all on pace to join them. (Only twice in the history of the Big 12 has a school had all of its teams reach the postseason in the same year.)

And while this has clearly been the best year in Baylor athletic history, it didn’t come out of nowhere. Let’s look back over the last few years:

• 36 Big 12 titles since Ian McCaw was hired as Director of Athletics in September 2003 — third-most in the league behind only Texas and Texas A&M — across six sports (baseball, women’s basketball, equestrian, softball, and men’s and women’s tennis).
• Three NCAA team championships in that same time span (men’s tennis in 2004, women’s basketball in 2005 and 2012) — the first three in school history.
• Seven straight top-50 finishes in the NACDA Directors’ Cup (which recognizes success across all sports) and on track for likely the best finish in BU history this year.

Furthermore, Baylor’s student-athletes have done all this while also excelling off the field. Individual successes have abounded (like Robert Griffin III leaving Baylor with not only a Heisman but a nearly completed master’s degree, all in less than five years), as have team honors (like the eight Baylor programs recognized in the last six years for academically ranking among the top 10% in their sport). And that doesn’t even begin to consider the spiritual formation Baylor emphasizes (like the regular service opportunities and department-sponsored mission trips that go out several times each year).

Sic ’em, Baylor athletics!